By IANS,
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday warned the government against imposing President’s Rule in Orissa, where communal riots during the past month and a half have claimed at least 35 lives.
“I warn the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government (against) imposing President’s Rule in Orissa. The people are already fed up, and this will prove to be too expensive,” said BJP’s prime ministerial hopeful L.K. Advani at the party’s Vijay Sankalp rally in Delhi.
Advani said the government should also tackle violence in the Congress-ruled Assam.
“Why don’t they do something about Assam’s condition, which is under their governance? How come insurgents from Bangladesh are coming in?” asked Advani.
He blamed Bangladeshis for terrorism in India and said it all started with Pakistani military dictator late General Zia ul Haq, who wanted to destabilise India by terrorism.
Earlier in the day, BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu also voiced his party’s concerns over the possibility of imposition of President’s Rule in Orissa, where the BJP is a key partner in the ruling alliance led by the Biju Janata Dal.
“The BJP would like to warn the government not to be adventurous in Orissa and not to impose Article 356,” Naidu told reporters here.
Article 356 of the Indian constitution enables the central government to dismiss any state government in case of the law and order breakdown. The president then governs the state, and executive authority is delegated to the state governor.
The United Progressive Alliance government has been under pressure from several fronts to impose President’s Rule in Orissa, where raging violence against minority Christian community has left 35 people dead in the past 45 days.
Advani congratulated the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Delhi, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, at the rally and said: “I have been watching Malhotraji since Jan Sangh days from 1958. He is the most experienced and capable person to take forward the country.”
Sushma Swaraj also attended the rally and said that it was time for the Sheila Dikshit-led government to go.
“The state’s law and order have gone haywire under the Congress government and our chief minister accuses an innocent lady killed on road of adventurism,” Swaraj said.
She was referring to the murder of Headlines Today journalist Saumya Vishwanathan. Vishwanathan, 25, was found dead in her car in Vasant Kunj area of south Delhi around 3.30 a.m. September 30 when she was returning from work to her home in Sector-C of Vasant Kunj. The police are investigating the case though they have no clues, no leads.
Swaraj also accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of not being able to see the plight of the people because of high inflation.
“Our prime minister, who’s a great economist, says that high prices are reflective of a progressive nation but can’t he see the pain of the poor in the country, who’ve been hit worst by it,” Swaraj asked.
V.K. Malhotra also spoke at the rally and said a new world-class city should not be built on the graveyard of the old.
“Sheila Dikshit should realise that regularisation of unauthorised colonies is very important for the poor, if we have to make water and electricity available to them,” said Malhotra.